Pioneers
GREG MACK - CONTROLLER OF THE FREQUENZIES
Born:
Real Name: Greg Mack
Artist Name: Mack Attack
KDAY was the first radio station in the world to play rap/hip hop 24/7. It was Greg Mack that started it in July 1983. To understand how he did that you have to understand where he started...KTSA/KTFM, San Antonio, Tx. is where his career began in 1975 as an intern...Radio was exciting even though his initial job was to answer phones for popular djs' Robert Lopez, Charlie Brown, and his mentor, Lee Randall...He was even the mascot for the FM station dressed in a big bird outfit...Greg wanted to do whatever it took to be successful...A new PD came in and told him that he would do whatever it took to get my black ass out of the station, you n---a! True story! Luckily his mentor, Lee Randall, had moved on to Program KEYS/KZFM in Corpus Christi, so when he told him what happened, he said I can't give you a full time gig but weekends and help you get a part time gig, which he did, Greg Mack worked as a dj at a club called the Windjammer and a VTR operator at KIII-TV in Corpus Christi...
It was his first on air gig and he had so much success that he gave him a full time air shift on KEYS after a short time. He sharpened his skills by assembling the top 1000 rock songs of all time. That's right, rock, was his roots and he still love "classic rock" to this day... A radio consultant named Jerry Clifton heard Greg Macks show and had one of his clients, Majic 102 in Houston, Tx. offer him a job. PD Bill Travis gave Greg Mack his first gig at an Urban Radio Station, it was 1980...his friend there, Snowman and Greg were always turning Houston out! In 1983, he was offered a gig at KDAY-L.A., his dream market. Jack Patterson gave him a shot...He couldn't believe it...working w/Ed Kerby, JJ Johnson, Russ Parr, Lisa Canning, Don Tracy, Steve Woods...they had so much talent there. They got a kick out of him pulling up to the station in his pickup wearing cowboy boots...
Jack and Ed asked him if he could create a sound that could compete and with everything that he had learned from everyone, he created a new format...It was never intended to be an all rap station, it was intended to be an all hit station, a reflection of the streets, truly a station for the people...Greg Mack was the first to use phrases like "the traffic jam", "the high five countdown", and others...he never knew at the time how many lives we were changing and the whole new genre they were creating... Imagine if your "street team" consisted of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, DJ Battlecat, Tony G, DJ M Walk, Julio G, Ice-T, Kid Frost, Egyptian Lover, Rodney O & Joe Cooley, M.C. Hammer, Tone Loc, L.A. Dream Team, Young M.C.,and the list goes on and on...Anyone he omitted, you know the story...
Greg Mack surrounded himself w/only the best talent...assembling one of the hottest group of djs ever, the Mixmasters...playing at "World on Wheels", "Dootos'", Skateland U.S.A., "the 321 Club", "The Casa Camino Real", they played the different areas because they wanted to show the Crips, the Bloods, and all gangs that they were down w/everyone and no one in particular...they had "street respect for everyone"...he did understand their struggle, He don't approve of it, but heunderstand it... What does Greg Mack do now? He is part owner of a group of radio stations in Spokane and one in Fresno w/more on the way...hey, if you want to control, own your own, right!
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Interview for West Coast Pioneers Greg Mack (The Voice of KDAY) |
Moderator: Stefan Schuetze |
Date: 10/2006 |
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| In 1983, Los Angeles Radio Station 1580 Kday took one small step for radio and one giant leap for Hip Hop by becoming the first station in the world to play Hip Hop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! |